Timeline

The Szent András Brewery was born out of the friendship of József Simkó, Csongor Rozsán and Mihály Pekár, the brewer. The first beer was produced on 16 April 1993, in Békésszentandrás.

At the second half of the 90s the Hungarian beer market went through important changes. Hundreds of Hungarian small breweries established in the beginning of the 90s had to close due to the appearance of the multinational companies. By the beginning of the 2000s less than a dozen breweries were still operating. For the Szent András Sörfőzde team it became clear that that the only way out of this situation is a combination of unquestioned vocation for quality in creating a real beer experience, following their own unique receipts on the one hand, complemented with their own bottling process on the other hand. This idea was reinforced by the 2006 study tour to Belgium, during which the idea of premium craft beer production was born.

The Black Rose, the first premium category, a doppelbock beer with an ABV of 9% was a great success. No one believed in the beer market hat a small Hungarian brewery like ours would be able to create such a high quality beer specialty.

Since there was no example of creating fruit beers of real fruits in Hungary it was a great work of nerves and perseverance.The Cherry Beer was prepared for about sixteen months, but it paid the time spent, as it turned into a great success on the market.

The first Főzdefeszt was organised in 2010 in Budapest in the name of “let’s save the Hungarian brewing”. This was the year since we’ve been talking about a craft beer revolution in Hungary; Szent András brewery and its team played a key role in bringing about this breakthrough.

The brewery won the Best Brewery of the Year award at the 2011 Főzdefeszt.

2014 was the year of complete renewal for the brewery. With the retirement of József Simkó, the legendary founder of the brewery a new generation take over his place. After the change the products of the brewery appeared in new design and homogenic corporate image. The reception of the new outlook was quite positive among the craft beer fans. The design industry recognised the work of the brewery with a prestigious award, the silver medal of the Gastro Design catering trade design competition.

József Simkó, the founder of Szent András Brewery received the Excellent Entrepreneur of Békés county Awards as a recognition for his work. The award was presented by the Békes county organization of the National Association of Entrepreneurs at the Príma Gala organised for the ninth time on 10 October 2014, in Békéscsaba.